African Pandemics Reach Breaking Point; Cholera, Measles Rampant

Editor's Choice
Main Category: Aid / Disasters
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 15 Jul 2011 - 10:00 PDT


There is an on-going massive drought in Ethiopia and again there is the threat of a resurgence of two well known epidemics, cholera and measles. Five million people are at risk of cholera in water starved Ethiopia, where acute watery diarrhea has broken out in crowded, unsanitary conditions, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

Ethiopian health officials have confirmed cases of acute watery diarrhea in the Somali, Afar and Oromiya regions of Ethiopia. Drought across the Horn of Africa, now affecting more than 11 million people in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia, has increased the risk of the spread of infectious diseases, especially polio, cholera and measles.

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic stated:

"Overall, 8.8 million people are at risk of malaria and 5 million of cholera (in Ethiopia). So far WHO has not received any report of polio cases, it really important to help countries to keep their polio-free status. It is not confined to the refugees."

WHO is delivering emergency health kits to Ethiopia and helping train health workers in treating malnutrition and in detecting disease outbreaks. Somalis fleeing severe drought and intensified fighting have been arriving at the rate of more than 1,700 a day in Ethiopia, where 4.5 million people now need assistance, nearly a 50% rise since April.

It does not stop with one pandemic. Two million children in Ethiopia are at risk of catching measles, a disease that can be deadly in children. UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said Friday at least 17,584 measles cases, including 114 deaths, have been reported by Ethiopian health officials in the first half of the year.

Measles has also broken out in the sprawling Kenyan Dadaab camps, with 462 cases confirmed including 11 deaths. Dadaab, an overcrowded complex of three camps, now holds some 440,000 refugees.

Help is on the way, but is it enough? A Boeing 747 flight carrying 100 tons of tents is expected to land in Nairobi on Sunday, he said. Six further flights were planned over the next two weeks.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres welcomed an announcement by Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Thursday that Kenya is to open an extension to the camps to ease congestion at Dadaab, where 1,300 Somali refugees arrive daily.

Edwards stated:

"It will prevent congestion increasing further in the short term. Obviously larger needs relate to the need to undertake humanitarian efforts inside Somalia itself."

WHO has warned that the movement of people and poor sanitation in overcrowded camps and towns due to drought and violence in East Africa increases the risk of cholera, typhoid and measles epidemics.

The main cause of many of Ethiopia's health problems is the relative isolation of large segments of the population from the modern sector. Additionally, widespread illiteracy prevents the dissemination of information on modern health practices. A shortage of trained personnel and insufficient funding also hampers the equitable distribution of health services. Moreover, most health institutions were concentrated in urban centers prior to 1974 and were concerned with curative rather than preventive medicine.

Western medicine came to Ethiopia during the last quarter of the nineteenth century with the arrival of missionary doctors, nurses, and midwives. But there was little progress on measures to cope with the acute and endemic diseases that debilitated large segments of the population until the government established it's Ministry of Public Health in 1948. The World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the United States Agency for International Development (AID) provided technical and financial assistance to eliminate the sources of health problems.

Sources: The World Health Organization and UNICEFl

Written by Sy Kraft
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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